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Information about Blakeneys
There is evidence that the name de Blakeney dates to the days of William the Conqueror. It has been spelled in different ways. The English and Irish Blakeneys are in history books. A romanticized novel of the French Revolution called the "Scarlet Pimpernel" depicts an English nobleman named Sir Percy Blakeney in an heroic role. Sir Percy Blakeney was a real person whose 1524 portrait by Franz Hals entitled "The Laughing Cavalier." Sir Percy was "Baron of Blakeney," Sussex, England.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, two sons of Launcelot Blakeney, of Sparham, in Norfolk, had land granted to them in Ireland for services rendered their Queen. One of these sons, Thomas married a niece of Lord Chancellor Hatton. Thomas settled at Mount Blakeney in the south of Ireland. The other son at Castle Blakeney in the west. Thomas's son William was granted the best part of the estate of Garrett Fitzgerald, the forfeiting Irish owner. William's estate consisted of the 1,140 acres forming the townships of Gartnepeguney and Thomastown. In 1655 he added 450 acres, where he built the castle at Mount Blakeney.
General Sir William Blakeney was born at Mount Blakeney in Limerick County in 1672. He was a member of Parliament, as his father had been before him. He led a regiment of 4,000 at the assault on Cartegena. The regiment included nephews from America and a younger brother named Robert. Robert recruited from North and South Carolina, sailed to Cuba and Port Bello then joined the main army and fought at the siege of Loyer, Fort St. Phillip and Minorca.
General Blakeney as in command for ten years at the Island of Monorca. King George II made Blakeney a knight of Bath, Colonel of Inniskilling Regiment of Infantry, and finally Lord Blakeney of Mount Blakeney. A statue of him was erected in Dublin [now reported to be in scrapyard in Dublin]. He had no sons and his titled was buried with his body in Westminster Abbey. His younger brother, Robert, inherited the estate. He had a nephew named John, who came to the American colonies about 1750. Captain John became the ancestor of the family included here.
About 1750 John settled on Lynch's River in the northwest corner of Chesterfield county in south Carolina. On November 16, 1775, John Blakeney was elected a Captain of militia and commissioned by the Provincial Congress to raise a company. The company was part of colonel Lemuel Benton's regiment and assigned to General Francis Marion's brigade. Captain John fought along with his sons, Thomas, John, Jr., and Robert, until the end of the war. He died August 8, 1832 at the age of 100 and is buried in the Blakeney graveyard near Pageland, South Carolina.
Captain John's descendent helped to settle the frontiers of this country. They have been prominent in service occupations including the military, education, medicine, politics, and law. They had one thing in common--an honorable name.
From James Reed Blakeney, July, 1986
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